Ashcroft quits, says he made U.S. safer

By Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Washington Post

John Ashcroft had a tumultuous tenure.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Related stories Ashcroft asks court to bar Oregon suicide law

Ashcroft, 62, the most controversial member of President Bush's Cabinet, was a favorite of Christian conservatives and the top target of criticism from civil libertarians. Evans, 58, kept a lower profile, but his close personal ties to Bush made him a powerful behind-the-scenes force in the White House.

In a five-page handwritten resignation letter to Bush, Ashcroft took credit for declining crime rates and preventing additional terrorist attacks during his tenure. "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved," he wrote.

But he also wrote that the "demands of justice are both rewarding and depleting" and that "the Department of Justice would be well served by new leadership and fresh inspiration."

	Commerce Secretary Don Evans is close Bush friend.

Many administration officials have said they would like Ashcroft's former deputy, Larry Thompson, to succeed him. But Thompson, who would be the nation's first African-American attorney general, recently became a senior executive at PepsiCo in Purchase, N.Y., and has indicated he is not interested, officials said.

Among other contenders are White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, who would be the first Hispanic attorney general, and Marc Racicot, a former Montana governor who was chairman of Bush's re-election effort, administration officials said. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani also is on the list.

At the Commerce Department, Cincinnati investor Mercer Reynolds, the national finance chairman for Bush's re-election campaign, is considered the top candidate to replace Evans.

The two resignations kicked off the second-term exodus that is a common byproduct of any president's re-election. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson are also considered likely to step down for less stressful, more lucrative positions in the private sector.

Secretary of State Colin Powell also may be ready to leave.

Ashcroft, the son and grandson of Assemblies of God ministers, spent most of his political career as an attorney general, governor and U.S. senator in Missouri.

He became the nominee for U.S. attorney general after losing his bid for re-election to the Senate in November 2000.

Ashcroft was thrust into a central role after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He presided over an expansive federal dragnet that apprehended and deported hundreds of Arab and South Asian foreign nationals on immigration violations but resulted in relatively few convictions for terrorism.

He helped shepherd a package of stringent anti-terrorism measures, the USA Patriot Act, through Congress, and used the new powers to restructure the mission of the FBI and Justice Department, which became primarily focused on thwarting another attack.

Ashcroft came under persistent attacks from Democrats, civil libertarians and some Republicans, who questioned the Justice Department's use of secretive court proceedings and aggressive surveillance-and-search techniques.

The Supreme Court also rebuffed one of the Justice Department's central anti-terrorism strategies, ruling in June that men detained indefinitely without charges as enemy combatants were entitled to lawyers and access to U.S. courts.

"This attorney general has been one of the most divisive forces in the Bush administration," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "His legacy will show that he was one of the worst attorney generals in American history, with an outright hostility for civil liberties and overt disdain for critics."

But leading Republicans said Ashcroft helped transform the Justice Department and FBI at a time the nation is under persistent threat of attack from terrorist groups.

"His service came at a challenging time in our history," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said in a statement. "His dedication and commitment to fighting the war on terror has been critical to ensuring the safety of all Americans in our homeland."

Ashcroft pushed the legal envelope on many hot-button issues. His department endorsed an expansive interpretation of the Second Amendment right to bear arms and sought to gain access to edited records of abortion patients as it defended the Partial Birth Abortion Act in a lawsuit.

Ashcroft's responses to criticism were often confrontational. He told a stunned Senate Judiciary Committee in December 2001 that criticism of government tactics "only aids terrorists"; two years later, he said librarians worried about FBI surveillance powers were "hysterics."

Although Ashcroft let it be known he would stay in his job at Bush's request, the request never came. He delivered his resignation letter to Bush on Election Day and waited a week before making it public. He said he would stay at the Justice Department until his replacement wins Senate confirmation.

In a statement praising the attorney general, Bush said Ashcroft "worked tirelessly to help make our country safer" while protecting "the rights of Americans."

Bush will feel Evans' departure on a more personal level. The two men have been friends for more than 30 years, moving together from hard-drinking days in West Texas to faith-based sobriety.

Evans has been intimately involved with all of Bush's political campaigns, starting with his unsuccessful race for Congress in 1978.

Administration insiders said Evans' plans became clear last summer when his family returned to Texas. His wife, Susie, who has known Bush since grade school, is caring for an ailing mother, and his son wanted to attend high school in Texas.

"While the promise of your second term shines bright," Evans wrote in his resignation letter, "I have concluded that it is time for me to return home." He will remain on the job until January.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More nation & world headlines...